A Long-Wanted Rarity, Finally Found
Some of Nintendo’s past toys and games are much rarer than others. There are the big hits from the 1960s (Ultra Hand, Ultra Machine) that were produced in the millions, plenty of which survive to this day. Then there are the solid sellers, which are also not that hard to find for a collector who knows where to look.
On the other end of the spectrum are games so rare you start doubting if they actually exist. The game that is the subject of this post is an example of this. It took me more than twenty years of searching before I could finally add it to the collection recently. Based on its absence from the display of games at the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto, it seems Nintendo does not even own a copy themselves anymore.
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| The three copies that appeared on Yahoo! Auctions Japan over the last 25 years |
To my knowledge, only three copies of this game have appeared on Yahoo! Auctions Japan since 2000. I failed to grab one of the first two, but the third time, in December 2025, I was lucky.
Introducing Home Race
The game is called Home Race (ホームレース), and it dates from the mid-1960s. The front shows a series of tanks based on the American M4 Sherman. US military equipment was a popular theme for toys in Japan during and after the American occupation following World War II.
The game sold for 500 yen at the time.
The box has a hexagon outline that is not the most practical shape, but it does help make it stand out a little more on the toy shop shelf.
It shares this box type with a series of board games released by Nintendo around the second half of the 1960s.
Inside the box we find an instruction manual, a playfield, and game accessories.
The playfield measures 39 by 16 centimeters and is about 3 centimeters high.
Plastic poker chips are included for keeping score.
A metal crank is also included, stored loose to allow the game to be kept in a relatively compact box.
The stars of the game are five plastic tanks, with tops (“turrets” in tank vocabulary) painted blue, white, green, yellow, and red. The tanks measure about 20 by 20 by 45 mm (including the gun).
How the Game Is Played
The Home Race instructions (ホームレースの説明書) read:
Line up the five tanks at the starting point, and when you turn the handle, the tanks move forward.
Stack the poker chips in a designated place, and after each game ends, each player takes chips according to their score.
The instructions continue:
Repeat the game five times in the same way, and determine the winning order starting with the person who has the highest total score (that is how rankings are decided).
(The course is designed so that the game can be played while it remains inside the box.)
Apparently it was possible to order replacement parts from Nintendo, as the instructions also mention: "Parts unit price: one set of five tanks — ¥50."
The scores are awarded as follows:
- 1st place: 500 points
- 2nd place: 300 points
- 3rd place: 100 points
- 4th place: 50 points
- 5th place: 10 points
And the value of the chips are:
- Red = 1000 points
- Yellow = 500 points
- Blue = 100 points
- Green = 50 points
- White = 10 points
The starting point is marked with the text “START” (スタート) and, strangely enough, with two checkered finish flags. The finish line is marked with the text “GOAL” (ゴール).
As promised in the instructions, when you rotate the crank, the tanks move forward in a random, jerking motion in their respective lanes, repeatedly changing front position, until one of them reaches the finish line first.
Two rows of little bumps in the playfield act as obstacles for the tanks, creating some additional challenges the tanks need to overcome to win.
The game does not require any batteries or other power source; it is fully powered manually.
Before we take a closer look at how it works, let’s see it in action in the video below.
1960s Ingenuity at Work
In order to understand the mechanism, we slide off the two cardboard pieces that make up the start and finish line from the metal frame.
On the finish-line end of the frame, we can see that the green plastic playfield, which can slide back and forth inside the frame, is suspended by two rubber bands.
By the way, these yellow rubber bands are replacements, as the original sixty-year-old ones had completely hardened over time and crumbled to pieces.
On the other side of the frame, the playfield pushes against a five-sided axle with rounded corners, which is rotated by turning the crank.
This circular motion pulls the playfield toward the start line by each of the five "knuckles", only to let it jump back slightly through the tension in the rubber bands. This happens five times per full rotation of the crank, creating the jerking, vibrating movement of the playfield that pushes the tanks forward. A simple, effective idea.
A Familiar Idea: Horse Race Game
This same concept was reused by Nintendo about ten years later in a game called Horse Race Game (競馬ゲーム), part of the Nintendo Mini Game series.
In this game, the tanks are replaced by horses, and instead of five lanes, we have four competing racers.
Another difference between the two versions is their size. Unsurprisingly, the Mini Game version is a lot smaller: it measures 25 by 8 centimeters and is 2 centimeters high.
The mechanism of Horse Race Game is almost identical to that of Home Race, except for the rubber bands, which are replaced here with a more durable metal spring.
This is another example of Nintendo remembering its past and returning to it in new games.
Completing the Grey Band Set
With the addition of elusive Home Race to the collection, I believe I have managed to find all of Nintendo’s “grey band” games from the 1960s, that share the same Milton Bradley inspired box design.
At least, all the ones that are known to exist. There may be more. So, we continue the search into Nintendo’s history.
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